Light My Fire
by cleverusernamehere
Summary: "Emilia had known since she was very young that she was different. It wasn't that kind of different that meant you were eccentric or socially awkward. It was fundamentally different—in appearance, in body, in soul. She wasn't quite human." NeroxOC edited
1. Introductions

**Disclaimer: **Me no own Devil May Cry. Me do own Emilia.

**A/N: **Changed my author's name from crazy-doesn't-cover-it to cleverusernamehere. I'm so creative, right? :D I'd like to think that my writing style has improved and/or settled down, so I'm tweaking this story a bit before I POSSIBLY begin writing a sequel to this. Don't give your hopes up!

* * *

Emilia had known since she was very young that she was different.

It wasn't that kind of different that meant you were eccentric or socially awkward. It was _fundamentally_ different—in appearance, in body, in soul. She wasn't quite human.

The young woman sighed as she wiped the fog caused by her shower from her bathroom mirror, and she studied her reflection. That was the most noticeable difference between her and the people of Fortuna. They were all residents of a port city, and generations of being exposed to the sun and sultry heat had made most of the people dark-haired and brown-eyed with warmly-colored skin tones.

Emilia's hair was a flaming shade of red-gold. Her skin was hopelessly alabaster. She had eyes the color of molten gold, and they were as sharp as her blade.

She wouldn't have minded looking a little out of place had it not lead to the other...well, other things.

The...other things could best be summed up during the time she came into existence. Emilia's mother was young and maybe just a bit too wild for an heir to one of the highly-respected noble families of Fortuna. A handsome stranger wandered into town...and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the rest. The handsome stranger mysteriously disappeared, the family found out about her mother's pregnancy, and _out _she was. Disowned.

It turned out no one even knew who (or what) he was. Hell, no one ever even bothered to get his _name_, not even her own mother. An exceedingly well-coordinated conquest on her father's part...the sly bastard.

Those otherthings really didn't become noticeable until she began training as a Knight of the Order at the tender age of twelve. She remembered picking up a sword for the very first time. The settle of the hilt in her palm felt familiar, and the balanced weight of the blade felt so natural that it actually scared her. That uncanny sensation also transferred to the practice fields, where she could easily defeat men who had three or four years experience over her. Even when she sparred casually, the adrenaline immediately rushed into her system and _sharpened _everything_. _

She was faster, more clever, and even more immune to injury. At the end of the day, when everyone returned home nursing bruises and cuts, she found her skin completely unmarred, even when there was evidence that a wound had been there previously.

It wasn't long enough after her training began that her mother's family began to notice. Her mother's family quite despised her, as she was a blemish on their prestigious bloodline, but it seemed as if the head of the Order, Sanctus, was quite interested in her abilities. In order to gain his favor, her grandfather quickly signed her over to be a guinea pig for Sanctus' research scientist, Agnus.

She was sworn to utter secrecy. Not a peep to anyone.

_Not that anyone would believe me anyway_, she thought sourly to herself as she shrugged on her long, high-collared gray coat over her form-fitting black tee. She sat down and pulled her lightweight gray boots over the slim legs of her cream-colored pants.

Emilia stepped out of her bathroom and into her small bedroom. Her bedroom was relatively plain and neat except for all the drawings that were tacked to the walls around her bed. It was a talent she supposedly received from her mother, and it really helped her clear her head sometimes. It could be really hard to concentrate for a while after the adrenaline (or demonic energies?) kicked her system into overdrive, when everything was so acutely defined her brain couldn't quite keep up.

She walked over to her desk and picked up her latest drawing, the tall man dressed in a trench coat that had appeared in one of her dreams. Emilia had simply colored his trench coat, which was a bold shade of crimson. Grabbing a tack, she paced back over to her bed and pinned him beside a drawing of her family: her Uncle Amandus and his son, Leonidas (the ones who took her in with open arms after her mother's death).

With a satisfied smile, she moved away from her bed and grabbed her utility belt and sword from their respective pegs on the wall. She strapped them both on and tugged on them to make sure they were fastened securely. As she left her room, she grabbed her house key and safely stowed it away in one of the pouches of her utility belt.

She was, unfortunately, ready to head out for duty that day.

–

Seriously, this is why she hated walking out in public. That lovely little demonic conscience in the back of her mind, for some reason, immensely enjoyed making lewd comments about any handsome man that dared walk anywhere near her (even her own cousin, Leon, as she called him). It was supremely disturbing to know that perverse _thing _was supposed to be part of her!

And, you know, the general populace staring at her like she was going to explode didn't necessarily help, either.

Emilia made it to Headquarters without catching the morning rush to the market, thankfully. She received her responsibilities for the day, so she went straight to work assisting the town folk as she was required; and she was finished by lunch. After a quick snack, she headed toward the practice fields, hoping to snatch up the fields for herself while everyone was at lunch.

By the grace of some higher power, the fields were devoid of human life. She drew her sword, Shadow's Bane, and breathed in deeply as she concentrated on a single wooden block near the edges of their designated practice area.

Emilia didn't even get to make contact with the block before several Order members emerged from the foliage, laughing and grinning at her in a way that made her insides boil with anger.

It wasn't long after they opened their mouths that Emilia completely lost it.

–

_I should really stop doing this kinda thing, _Emilia thought to herself as she was seated outside her commander's office.

Her demon snickered at the lack of resolve in that statement.

Emilia liked to think of herself as calm, cautious girl who preferred not to say very much. The only thing was...she had one beastly temper. There were really only three fundamental things that could rile her up enough to snap, and they were: insulting her hair color, insulting her height (she had a bit of an inferiority complex), and being a sexist jerk. Other times, bugs, sweat, gore, burping, farting, perverted jokes, and other offensive things dumb guys liked didn't affect her.

Now that she really thought about it, she didfeel a little guilty about going so insane on that one guy that she also ended up injuring his not-quite-as-involved buddies. All they did was just stand there and laugh.

On second though, she didn't really feel guilty at all.

So, she sat there, stewing in her own juices, until Credo called her in. When she entered the room, a white-haired kid was also standing in front of Credo's desk. He turned, and his expression turned into one of surprise before it changed into an amused smirk. "Oh, she's the one that kicked their asses? How old is she? _Twelve_?"

Emilia could feel her blood-pressure rising dangerously by just looking at him. She had had a few run-ins with this male, and none of them were very pleasant. First one being the first time she ever had to spar with him during their training. That was one of the few times she had every been defeated, and she couldn't find it in her heart to forgive him. Not one bit.

She glared at him dryly. "And how old are you? _Eighty_?"

He was silenced. She made sure the smile she gave him wasn't very nice.

"Be quiet, both of you," Credo commanded venomously.

Both she and the white-haired male shifted uncomfortably at this tone. Emilia muttered "He started it," so inaudibly that there could have been no possible way he could have heard it, but Credo turned at glared at her sharply.

She glanced down at her feet. "Yes, sir."

Nero had heard what she said, so he couldn't help but smirk at this.

Credo straightened the papers he had been glancing at several moments before he glanced toward Nero. "If you would please step out for a moment, Nero."

The white-haired male nodded and headed for the door, leaving Emilia and Credo by themselves.

Credo's gaze shifted back toward Emilia, who tried her best not to squirm under that penetrating gaze. "Now, would you care to explain why several of my knights are in the healing ward?"

She crossed her arms and scowled. "They wouldn't leave me alone."

He sighed in frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Emilia couldn't stop herself from blurting out, "Would you want to be made fun of all the time?"

Credo paused just for a moment. "I suppose I wouldn't. But that _does not_ give you the right to attack anyone! Emilia, you _have _to gain self-control!"

She could feel her expression crumple. In all honesty, self-control was really difficult to achieve at times. It didn't help that her demon seemed to goad her on in a lot of situations, and that the demon herself would suddenly rise up and force her energy through Emilia's veins. Not to mention sometimes shouldn't couldn't concentrate or keep still, and it was all the product of housing a hot-blooded, battle-thirsty demon.

Her commander found himself sighing at her kicked-puppy expression. His gentleman's complex was eating him alive. "I'm sorry, Emilia, but I have to put you on probation."

"What! No!"

That meant she was forbidden to go to the training grounds for a month, and it also greatly limited what kinds of missions she could take during that month. That meant she couldn't vent on the dummies in the fields (human or not), and that also meant a nice little whack in her paycheck this month. Oh, for the love of the Savior, she was going to be so immensely bored! Drawing could only entertain her for so long, and her uncle and cousin were relatively busy people.

Credo attempted to say something, but she cut him off. "Yeah, I know. My fault," she said sadly. "It can't be helped until I learn to control my temper. I get it."

He gave a small smile of approval at her admittance before he gestured toward one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Now take a seat. You're not going to like this."

Emilia hesitantly slid into one of the uncomfortably hard-backed chairs as Credo called Nero back in. As he took seat, Credo seemed to be steeling himself for something terrible. He picked up a sheaf of white papers and stacked them neatly together. "Now, I need to the _both _of you to report to a client on the outskirts of the city. It seems a dense cluster of demons have been spotted near the forests."

There was a stunned silence. They were actually being asked to _pair _up for a mission? Then the eruption of an argument ensued.

"Hell, no!" Nero argued. "Not with _her, _at least!" He despised group missions, and he despised her even more. They had clashed several times in the past already.

Emilia scoffed, "You know he wouldn't be able to take the heat."

"What the fuck did you just say?"

"If you're in the way when I perform Inferno, you'll be _ashes_ in mere seconds! A cocky dumbass like you would do just that!"

"You understand," Credo interrupted in a threatening tone, "I could put you both on restriction."

They both shut up. That meant no missions at all.

"Now," he said in a more business-like manner, "this is the information for your mission. Report back to me when you have completed it. You are both dismissed." He tossed Emilia the packet.

The two hunters shuffled out of the room, grumbling under their breaths.

Oh, what a fun day this was going to be.

* * *

Feed my raging ego and click the review button! :DD (Though, pointing out grammar mistakes and such is also nice as well.)


	2. Anticipation

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing but Emilia.

**A/N: **Reviews, constructive criticism, and corrections are always appreciated!

* * *

A deathly silence cloaked the outskirts of the city.

Emilia's senses kicked into overdrive, every shadow and whisper distinct in the unnatural stillness. Her demon crawled under her skin in anticipation, and she gripped her longsword, Shadow's Bane, until her knuckles turned white.

She absolutely _hated _waiting.

Nero growled lowly in his well-built throat, apparently as impatient (if not more so) than she was. Emilia had to tear her gaze away from his throat, as her demon had not _shut up _about his throat or collarbones since they had left HQ. (The incessant rambling sounded like this: _They just look __**so **__delicious! Why not take a small nibble, hm? _And so on, so forth, etc.)

"God!" he snarled, "Where the hell are they at?" He swung his massive sword, the famed Red Queen, in a sleek arc before propping it on his broad shoulders.

She snorted to herself as she nimbly scaled a tree to gaze over the foliage for any disturbance. "I suspect they have an appointment for tea with the queen of England."

Nero merely pinned his narrowed beautiful stormy-blues on Emilia. She grinned at him cattily.

With a sigh, she glanced back over the treetops. God, what was _up _with this kid? "Geez, dude, I'm just trying to crack jokes. Lighten up."

His strangely shapely lips quirked into a frown. "It wasn't even funny!"

A blur of red descended from the leafage, revealing Emilia hanging upside down from a branch. "Well, _boo you_, whore. You set yourself up for that one."

"Like hell I'm a whore!"

She regarded him cynically. "That's what they _all _say."

By the time he had decided to retort, she had already disappeared into the brush.

He sighed loudly. Just why did she have to be so damn troublesome?

–

Emilia's golden gaze trailed across the green horizon. A playful little breeze twirled the ends of her hair, and she would've smiled had it not be for the foul stench of death and decay that accompanied the wind.

There was no mistaking what was coming. Demons.

She leaped from the branches, her eyes glittering in anticipation. "They're coming in from the west!"

No sooner had the statement left her mouth, a large group of Assaults tore from the leafage, jaws gaping and screaming shrilly.

Nero cleaved through the first two, and prepared to shred into another when demon guts and dust burst from multiple demons around him. With a lamenting wail, they collapsed and dissolved into oblivion.

He turned to glare at the short female with wild red hair behind him, a bright red-orange energy dissipating from around her right hand.

"Gotta be faster," she said with a smirk.

Nero sighed and unholstered Blue Rose, aiming for Emilia's head.

He smirked at her alarmed expression and shot the demon sneaking up on her, the bullet raking across her nose and shredding through a thin line of tissue as she turned to see what was behind her.

He replaced his beloved gun back in its holster. "Gotta be faster."

If looks could've killed, he'd been dead twenty times over. "Yeah," she growled, "next time you shoot, _watch where the hell you aim!_"

He chuckled infuriatingly, "I _always_ watch where I aim."

Emilia grumbled violently under her breath as she twirled and unleashed a barrage of slashes upon a demon that had just leaped through the bushes. She used her demonic energy to incinerate several more, and then jammed her sword through the throat of another one that attempted to swipe at her turned back.

Nero, Emilia begrudgingly admitted, wasn't doing half-bad himself. He picked off as many demons as he could with his gun first; then he drew Red Queen, revved her engine, and proceeded to tear into the devils with a strong-armed vigor Emilia could never hope to achieve. As Emilia's demon put it, it was a magnificent spray of blood, bone, and entrails.

The demons' numbers began to die down, and Emilia finally sliced through the last one with a bored huff. She and Nero, still slightly on edge, stood very still and waited for more to magically show up like they always did. After they realized no more were going to show up, they unraveled their tensed muscles with a sigh and began the process of cleaning off their weapons.

Nero studied Emilia carefully as she used a small cloth she had pulled from her utility belt pocket to rub away the gore in the grooves of her hilt. He watched as her eyebrows furrowed and her lips dipped into a frown.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't stare at me like that," she remarked, a hint of irritation in her tone.

He twitched in annoyance and bit back his snarky reply. "I want to know how you killed those demons without your sword earlier. That wasn't magic."

When she glanced up, Nero expected her to look vexed or fearful. But her expression was unnaturally neutral. "It's not something I like to talk about," she answered flatly. Without another word, she turned on her heels and began walking back toward this city.

Well.

–

Unfortunately, once they returned to headquarters, they had to wait. A very, very long time. The two were still there, even after sitting in absolute silence for an hour.

Nero _loathed_ it. And that stupid girl hadn't said a word since they left the forests. Silent people annoyed him to no fuckin' end.

"You know, I really hate silent people."

"And I really hate mouthy bastards much like yourself."

Nero sucked in a deep breath and attempted to rein in his volatile temper. He was trying to have a normal conversation like a normal person, dammit! _One step a time, Nero, one step at a time..._

"You know," he ground through his clenched jaw, "I never caught your name."

The girl never even cast a glance his way. "A useless piece of information, I assure you."

Nero could feel his teeth grinding together painfully and his nails digging into palms. His ears began turning red from the sheer force of his anger. And yet he tried again, so bored out of his wits as to anger himself trying to initiate conversation with someone as difficult as she was. "I'm Nero."

For the first time, she turned to look at him, but the expression on her face was basically everything but genuine interest. "You know, for someone's name who means 'strong and vigorous,' you sure do look like somebody's bitch."

A growl erupted from his throat. "That's it! Excuse me for trying to be civil, _princess_."

"Ha. That's a new one. Princess. I'm sorry to inform you I'm not one of those."

"_Really?_" Nero said in a tone so sarcastic that it was almost tangible. "And to think you had me fooled!"

Nero gasped sharply as the temperature suddenly soared. In mere seconds, beads of sweat were trailing down his face and back.

"It's Emilia," she retorted in a deadly calm voice. "Now leave. Me. _Alone_."

The temperature returned to normal, and Nero scoffed to hide his twinge of alarm at the realization _she _was the one manipulating the temperature. "So much for trying to be nice to a lady. It turns out you're a mountain gorilla."

She snorted so loudly that Nero jumped. "Now _that's_ in a league of its own!"

Emilia shrugged at the question on his face. "I get made fun of a lot. I don't exactly blend into the brickwork, you know." She then pointed to her halo of fiery golden-red hair. "This is a controversial issue among 'my comrades,' as our dear general likes to put it."

"Yeah, it _is _rather unnatural."

Her expression darkened slightly. "So says the boy who has old geezer hair. I bet you bleach it."

"Nope, this is all natural. You just don't want to admit the fact that _you're _the one that bleaches."

"...But red's a natural hair color and white is not."

"So?"

She sighed at this. "You're impossible."

Nero sniggered. "Welcome to the club."

Emilia was about to retort, but a familiar face interrupted her thought. Leon. "All right, you annoying little twits," he announced with a grin, "you're finally allowed to go inside."

She quirked an eyebrow but found herself smiling anyway. Poor Nero, bewildered by the fact that Emilia could somehow be _civil_, just watched this exchange in silence. They both stood up and trekked into Credo's grand office.

The general of the Order was seated in his large chair, elbows propped up and fingers laced neatly. "I am suspecting the mission is a success?"

"We're both still in one piece, right?" Nero answered.

Credo sighed at his sister's dearest companion. How they came about was still a total mystery to him.

"Nero, you are dismissed," Credo said pointedly. Nero merely rolled his eyes and began making his way to the pay office. Credo then rotated his sharp gray gaze onto Emilia. "I have a message for you."

Credo pushed a plain manilla packet toward Emilia, and she knew what it was even before peeking at the contents. She pulled back the little metal tabs, turned up the flap, and pulled out the white sheet of paper inside. It was covered in Agnus's rushed, spidery scrawl, and it only confirmed her earlier suspicions.

It was a summons.

–

Emilia truly despised going down to Agnus's lab. But by the signature of the head of her mother's family, her own _grandfather_, she was a test subject for all sorts of strange experimentation. And some of it was rather painful.

As much as she despised admitting in, Emilia was terrified of Agnus. He stared at her like a piece of meat, in a way. She was something to be poked and prodded and cut open. Agnus never stared at her like a regular human being, with breath and thoughts.

Sometimes, it would take her nearly an hour to reach his extensive research facility. Demons were crawling everywhere lately, and Emilia knew why. Agnus had recreated the Hellgate. The answer to why he had, Emilia had only a vague idea. An experiment for something, which she had a small part of.

Several times, Emilia had to go through survival testing. She was left in a room teeming with demons—which she had to fight off, even though more appeared. Emilia would always use all of her Vital Stars, Holy water, and Orbs; and when she was about to die, her demon would trigger. Agnus merely stood outside behind a thick, Plexiglas window and observed, and one or two times, somehow drew a sample of her blood while she triggered. She could never remember.

She desperately wanted to tell someone about this terrible place and its dangerous activities. But, _no_, she couldn't breathe a word. (Or, it had been promised, "she never get to see the blessed sunlight again.")

Something very big and terrible was about to occur, of that Emilia was sure.

Emilia noiselessly perched on one of Agnus' examination tables. Another time she hated being short, since her feet never touched the floor. There was several inches between the tips of her lightweight boots and the floor. It depressed her, quite frankly, to be such a pipsqueak.

The huntress heard Agnus long before she saw him. He was a short, stocky, hunched over version of a man that muttered to himself constantly, scrawled on a clipboard quite often, and stuttered sometimes.

He scuffled in the room, muttering and scribbling as usual. "Alright, Miss Emilia, I need to run a few blood tests and DNA sample." At least he was polite to her, even if it was just because she was a girl...that was highly valuable in his research.

She pulled off her storm gray duster and rolled up the three-fourths sleeve of her black formfitting undershirt. (Clothes which were specially created by the Order's other research facilities so she could use Inferno without her clothes scorching off entirely...Could you imagine what kind of ruckus that would cause?)

Agnus drew three viles of blood and swabbed the inside of her mouth, quickly and mechanically. "Alright, Emilia, that is all. You may leave."

She rolled back the sleeve, shrugged back on her coat, and waited until Agnus had left to yawn loudly. Emilia had found herself sleeping a good bit lately, and she vaguely wondered if it was her body's way of preparing her for the calamity she felt looming over Fortuna.

Emilia shook her head to clear her thoughts and leaped down from her perch.

It was time to go home.

* * *

Reviews = awesomesauce.


	3. Discord

A month-and-a-half had passed, and the Order was busy with final preparations for their annual Festival of the Sword. It started with a solemn ceremony where everyone went "Yay, Sparda!" and then partied like it was going out of style for the rest of the week.

Emilia actually enjoyed the festivities. They had so many interesting booths filled with all sorts of goods and games. And the huge feasts filled with _fabulous _foods.

Did she mention the food was awesome? Oh, yes, she did. But, seriously, the food was great. Emilia swore she gained about ten pounds during the week with the amount of food she ate.

She had completed her duties, so she returned home as quickly as she could to beat the alarmingly growing crowds that had traveled to Fortuna to witness the celebrations. As she had expected, she returned home to empty silence. Her uncle and cousin were busy lending a hand with preparations, and she would be eating lunch alone again for the fourth time that week. Sigh.

Emilia decided to change out of her work clothes, so she made her way to her small room. She yanked off her coat, then her shirt and pants in exchange for a floppy t-shirt that looked vaguely like one of Leon's tees and a pair of flannel pajama pants.

As she tossed her sweaty clothes into her clothes hamper, she happened to glance toward her bed and notice something there. The young woman glared at a neatly folded pile of Order uniforms with several severe-looking tears and a note pinned to the top.

_Hi! _

_I'll be your best friend if you fix these for me! _

_The Sexy Beast_

_That freaking nickname! _Her eyebrow spasmed violently at the note. After that damn girl had to _stupidity_ to call Leon "sexy" to his face, his already massive ego had swollen to such heights that it made him hard to stand sometimes. He knew he was a looker and loved to flaunt it, so it made it irritating and very embarrassing to go out in public with him. Always the gaggle of jealous females that practically snarled about Emilia being with her cousin."Oh, who is _this_, Leon?" Always the preening on Leon's part.

Ew.

Emilia found herself frowning deeply at the memories, so she busied herself by pulling her needle and thread from one of her desk drawers. Leon, for the strangest reason, was always returning home with torn and shredded uniforms, so she had become quite adept at sewing.

When she was finished, she neatly re-folded the uniforms and added a note of her own.

_Dear "Sexy Beast,"_

_Your nickname sucks._

_Emilia_

With a smirk of satisfaction, she placed the uniforms on his bed and pranced back to her room. She leaped onto her tiny little bed and sighed with contentment as she looked at all the drawings that inhabited her walls. There were even some sketches of Sparda's rumored humanoid form. He was quite striking, it was told. She had drawn him with a chiseled jaw line, high cheekbones, a thin, straight nose, and kind eyes. Her sketch of Sparda was one of her favorite pieces.

Emilia's face suddenly twitched into concentrated frown. Now that she thought about it, Nero bore a prominent resemblance to her portrait of Sparda. Her eyes finally traveled over to her drawing of the man in red that kept reappearing in her dreams, and she also noticed that he looked a lot like her drawing of Sparda, too.

...That was just creepy.

She lightly shook her head to clear her thoughts, and she began to gaze at her other doodles. Her drawings consisted of her uncle and cousin, random passerby, the Docks, birds, trees, architecture, and other random things. After she had finished admiring her work, she reached over to her CD player and popped in the CD that was closest in her reach. It just happened to be Dragonforce, one of her favorites. Hey, songs about defeating demons and awesomely endless guitar and keyboard solos were cool. How couldn't someone not like them?

And soon her head was filled with a drum beat and guitars and singing. She flopped back onto her back and stared at her plain white ceiling.

The sound of boots trekking down the hall and her doorknob turning caught Emilia's attention. Half a second later, Leon burst into her room, his handsome face beaming and sandy brown hair a wild mess.

He had a habit of bursting into her room. Once or twice, he caught her naked, which resulted having heavy and sharp objects chucked at him at very high speeds. And, God, don't forget the awkward silence that ensued from such encounters (it was more like Emilia glaring at him venomously for the rest of the day, and he had just enough sense not to say anything).

"Snogging that stupid girlfriend of yours in an alleyway, Leon?" she, not even bothering to spare him a glance, inquired coolly.

"You bet. Listening to your Emo music again, Emilia?"

She rolled her eyes. "So says the guy that cries like a little girl to Hawthorne Heights."

"Hey, that stuff is pretty depressing."

"Oh, look at you, trying to save face!" she retorted haughtily, knowing she had won. Despsite her attempt to be all sly and cool, she couldn't stop the silly grin that broke across her face. "Your uniforms are on your bed, by the way."

He gave her a thumbs up and strutted back to his room a few doors down.

Emilia smirked to herself. _Three...Two...One... _

"I'll have you know that my nickname is quite awesome, thank you!"

She burst into laughter at Leon's indignant tone, and she settled down on her bed again with a sleepy smile. Now that her task was done, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall into the warm black oblivion of sleep.

_She was in the graveyard. Her mother was buried here, but it was not time for Emilia to visit. So why she here? _

_A shadow appeared not far from her, as if to answer her question. The elusive clouds dissipated, revealing the waxing moon and the tall silhouetted figure. _

_His shoulders were broad and proud, on top of which a very large sword with a skeleton adorning its hilt was propped. Emilia had a feeling she'd seen that sword somewhere before. _

_The stranger sensed her behind him, and turned to gaze at her. A light breeze blew the bangs from his eyes, revealing strange silvery-blue orbs, dangerous and alluring. His full lips grew into a smirk. _

And her eyes opened.

All traces of the afternoon were swallowed by the soft purple twilight that filtered through her window. She rose from her bed with a small groan, and she began pulling more presentable clothes on.

It was time to visit the graveyard.

–

It was entirely silent as she stealthily padded through the dead, brittle winter grass. Too silent. But graveyards were always that way.

And she was soon standing in front of her mother's grave. _Hi, Mom, I hope being dead is going great for you. Besides, the land of the living isn't all that lively. Not here, anyway. _

Sparks danced across her fingertips. Emilia hoped, somewhere and somehow, that her mother could see her make fire dance for her. She had a feeling her mother would be delighted by it if she were still alive.

The sparks burst into being, flaring into a creature of breath and life. Emilia gracefully twirled and flipped, the fire never ceasing to enhance her daring movement.

She danced endlessly for a hour, entirely unaware that she had spectator. One that could have been considered annoying and insufferable, with snowy white hair and clear blue-gray eyes.

–

Nero strolled back home after another long demon hunt and decided to take the scenic route. It passed by the graveyard of the Order, where strange activity was always rumored to be. But it didn't matter—it was quiet and peaceful. There was no one there to bother him, to stare at him like he was something freakish. It was quite a welcome change.

His ears perked up at the sound of a fire crackling, but it sounded different from its usual roaring self. The sound almost hummed like the purr of a cat, but it was the unmistakable sound of fire. Whatever it was, Nero decided to investigate. It could possibly turn out to be the most interesting things he had witnessed all day.

He, hidden by the building's large shadow, appeared from an alleyway near the graveyard. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted his eyes.

It was that girl! He could never mistake that bright red hair of hers. She was, _somehow,_ writhing as gracefully as she flames that surrounded her delicate frame.

He didn't see how that could be possible. Everything about her screamed everything but graceful. From what he had seen of the girl, she glared, talked, and stalked around like an angry animal.

But there she was, mesmerizing him. He could have smacked himself for it, except he couldn't even move his limbs. He was superglued in place, with his mouth gaped open in awe.

Now that he thought about it, he felt like a total stalker.

_Damn it, legs, get a move on! _Nero silently commanded his legs, and he was about to take a tentative step forward when his sharp eyes caught a flash of her well-defined stomach.

Now he felt like a complete pervert.

_C'mon, you ass, think about Kyrie! _Despite his supplication, his brain would not conjure up a picture of the pretty Songstress, as it was completely bewitched by Emilia. His senses suddenly kicked into overdrive, and he began to notice lots of little details. He could tell, even under her clothes, even under her skin, that she had the lithe build of a panther. While the curls of her hair were a little untamed, she had thick and luscious hair. Her almond-shaped eyes were colored like molten gold, and they were framed by long, sooty ashes. Her ivory skin was smooth and unmarred, and her full pink lips pinched in concentration.

Why was he getting all poetic? _Poetic_, of all things. Nero was everything but poetic.

Maybe he should just go home.

–

Emilia woke up with a hiss the next morning as the bright morning sunlight blinded her. She shot up as the pain filtered in her brain and nearly fell out of bed from the shock of moving so suddenly.

As she rubbed her tired eyes grumpily, she glared at the clock and nearly fell out of bed again. It was already several minutes past eleven! The festival sermon began at noon!

...And, damn it, she'd already missed the cotton candy guy!

She snatched up a few clean clothes and scrambled away for the bathroom, desperately hoping that Leon was not being a total girl and taking forever to get ready. It took him _an hour _compared to her fifteen minutes. Absolutely pathetic, no?

No more than twenty minutes later, Emilia appeared from the bathroom, fully dressed and vigorously drying her hair. She tossed it back in the bathroom hastily as she read the clock. _11:25_

Knocking open her door, she grabbed Shadow's Bane and her utility belt full of little essentials, such as Vital Stars and bottles of Holy Water. While this may have seemed paranoid to most of the general populace, Emilia always felt it was best to be prepared.

Just in case.

–

After running like Lucifer himself was on her heels, she reached the church before many people had taken their seats, which allowed her to climb up one of the many grand statues that were located throughout the vicinity. She would be by herself, without anyone to notice her. Besides, it was the best view of the house, and she liked high places anyway.

His Holiness appeared in front of the fluctuating congregation and took a seat for the Songstress of the Order's performance, all wise smiles as usual. Something about him always seemed off about him, but Emilia figured he was just senile. Crazy or not, he kept things relatively orderly and peaceful around here, so she didn't have much to complain about.

The Songstress of the Order, clad in a beautiful and delicate dress of white, stepped forward for her performance. The delicate, gracefully curved brunette stood in front of the now-settling crowd with a gentle, if not a tiny bit nervous, smile. She breathed in deeply, and a beautiful sound flowed out of her pretty mouth, instantly silencing any activity that played out in the large room. All time seemed to stop for a few precious seconds as her singing flooded the room. And all too soon, she stopped, allowing His Holiness to begin.

He gave his sermon in a quiet, somber tone, and Emilia listened as she had been taught, even though he never deviated from the same speech. Most of the people of Fortuna, including herself, could probably recite the story forward and backward. Thankfully, the sermon was never very long, and he asked them to bow their heads in prayer. Everyone obediently bowed their heads and awaited his words.

But those words never came.

The sound of shattering class disrupted the serene silence and gave way to chaos.

A tall, well-built man clad in a long crimson duster followed the path of the glass. As he touched down, he raised one of his guns toward His Holiness and fired. Emilia couldn't help the pained gasp that escaped her mouth as she watched with terrifying clarity as the bullet drilled into his head and showered blood everywhere.

With his work done, the man turned around slowly, defiantly, to stare at the crowd. His face was splattered with blood, and his haunting silvery-blue gaze was cool and calculating—like a predator's.

"Your Holiness!" Credo shouted sometime after Sanctus had been shot, but Emilia was only just registering his words. Pandemonium mounted as the masses writhed in fear, trying with all their might to get away from the strange assassin.

Emilia's heart hammered into her throat. She was frozen in place, entirely incapable of moving even her fingertips.

_My drawing. He exists._

And he just killed the most important man in all of Fortuna.

Knights of the Order flooded into the room and instantly surrounded the stranger, whom the man tore into with the utmost ease. She was mesmerized by the murderous stranger's effortless, fluid grace. It was obvious he was like her. He had to be.

Her demon instantly rose at the smell of blood, and Emilia began to notice things in an even keener lucidity. She could hear the soldiers' terrified heartbeats and taste their fear on her tongue as Credo ordered a retreat. Credo commanded Nero to stay here and slow down the stranger's departure until reinforcements were called in, and follow him if he were to get by Nero. He hastily escorted his sister from the building, eager to get his precious sibling to safety.

Emilia crouched low, ensuring she would not be seen. A battle hung thick and ominous in the air, and she wanted to stick around. Just in case.


	4. The Man in Red

**Disclaimer: **If I owned DMC, I'd be whooping some ass over DMC 5.

* * *

Every fiber in Emilia's being screamed in excitement as Nero and the red-clad guy geared up to duke it out in a manly display of swordsmanship.

It began with a one-sided verbal battle. Emilia quickly decided that Nero really needed to work on his one-liners. They were cheesy and...awful. Just awful.

Thankfully, though, it didn't take long for things to build up and unfold right before Emilia's eager eyes.

Shots from Nero's Blue Rose rang through the empty marble edifice, and the red guy replied with several powerful slashes, which Nero dodged pretty well.

But this guy was way beyond his league. Way beyond hers, too.

His strikes started to come faster, stronger, more pointed; and Nero was soon being thrown off balance. And soon, Red Queen was knocked from his grip.

With a burst of demonic energy, the guy in red surged forward, sword ready to tear into its target's chest. Nero, in a last ditch attempt to at least come through this attack mostly unscathed, threw his injured right arm in front of his face.

The man's sword pierced his covered arm, and a great crackle crashed through the air. A surge of power rushed through the space of the grand room, and it was so great that it distorted the air around the fighting pair. Nero's sling had been shredded to pieces, revealing wildly glowing blue claws adorned with a hide of deep crimson red.

Emilia shivered involuntarily while her demon sighed wistfully. She could feel the creature crawl under her skin, itching with the lust of battle.

She grumpily commanded it to calm down, and the only reply she received from it was a snarky little chuckle. Fortunately for Emilia, it settled in her conscience, though it still twitched in excitement. Now she was able to concentrate on the exchange playing out below her.

And the red-clad man finally spoke. "Looks like you have a trick up your sleeve..."

Emilia instantly knew there was something she was going to like about this guy. His voice was so cool. Hell, he just _oozed _coolness.

And, of course, the white-haired wonder had to ruin it with, "I thought the cat had your tongue!"

The guy in red leaped backward as Nero's new limb addition flared, revealing a glimmer of a larger forearm. Nero roared viciously as he picked up a gargantuan decorative sword a heaved it at the other white-haired male.

Nero quickly retrieved his sword while the man in red was regaining his footing, and they charged for each other again, only for the force of their meeting to send them flying back. Both white-haired men were tossed into pews, all the while uttering possibly suggestive insults through sexy smirks.

Emilia had a thought.

They would make a _super hot _gay couple.

Unfortunately, neither seemed like the type.

The fight continued as Nero began to gain the upper...claw-thing.

Finally, one devastating punch to the stranger's sword sent him flying through the air. Nero appeared beside him and snatched up his foot, wrenching the male toward him and punching him fiercely in the face. The force was powerful enough to create a substantial crater beneath his large body.

Emilia flinched. How that guy's face wasn't smashed in was beyond her.

With a wild cry, Nero began to beat the stranger's face in. Emilia watched in awe as one of his arms sizzled and spasmed with a large amount of demonic energy and transformed.

Nero abruptly snatched up the mysterious man and chucked him toward the statue of the Dark Knight. The male made resounding contact with the marble sculpture.

In the few moments that followed his crash, his sword followed, whizzing through the air and painfully penetrating his chest.

The man in red groaned in pain and went limp.

Emilia's eyes grew wide. The man in red was...

Dead.

Nero smirked to himself, rolled his pained shoulder around, and began to walk away.

"You're..." a rough voice suddenly spoke.

Nero abruptly turned around to the source.

"Getting better..."

He began to push himself off his deeply-embedded blade. "I would go as far to say that I underestimated your..."

With one finally push, he dropped gracefully to the floor and gently pulled the blade that protruded from his chest. "Abilities."

A puzzled look crossed Nero's handsome features. "You're not human, are you?"

Her demon's chuckles echoed across the confines of her mind. It commented to her in a tone that was immensely amused, _"I wonder what gave that away..." _

The two spoke further, and the man gestured toward one of the fallen soldiers.

It wasn't human.

Emilia's stomach clenched violently. She knew Agnus had been working on those creatures for some time, but she honestly hadn't thought they'd penetrate their society so deeply they were being disguised as trusted Order Knights.

Her's eyes instinctively trailed up, and her eyes widened as she realized the man was leaving the way he came.

"Adios, kid!" he called one last time to Nero, and mock-saluted him as he disappeared.

"Wait!" Nero yelled irritably, and fired Blue Rose halfheartedly in hopes of bringing back the other white-haired hunter.

It wasn't long before Nero heard the steady beats of running feet. The backup was finally arriving, and that's why that damn bastard just ran off!

The clattering of the chandelier caused Nero's gaze to instantly flicker toward the commotion. It was that girl, Emilia, scrabbling up that thing like she was a cat trying to climb a tree. His shoulders tensed in surprise—just when did she show up? Had she been here all along?

"I'm going after him!" she shouted simply, and before he could even reply, she leaped into the hole in the ceiling just as Credo and his forces arrived. Credo obviously didn't see her disappear because he made no indications that he saw her.

Credo stepped in front of Nero, looked him in the eye, and ordered stiffly. "Follow him."

Nero nodded and dashed out the door. He would've jumped out of the room like Emilia had, but Nero wasn't exactly known for his agility.

–

Emilia propelled herself onto the roof, flipping while she did so, and touched down several yards from the fleeing stranger. "Hey!" she shouted forcefully.

The stranger stopped dead in his tracks at the level of commandment in this person's tone and tilted his head at the sound of this new voice. Female. No wonder he stopped. It was sad how the women in his life, past and present, had him completely whipped.

He sighed and turned on his booted heel, his expression transforming from serious to surprised at the dainty little female that glared at him. Aw, wasn't she just the cutest little thing?

Wow, a dainty pixie like her had the gall to stop him like that? The _great _Dante? Either he was losing his touch, or that little girl was an idiot. And Dante was sure the latter was much more plausible.

"Who are you?" she inquired boldly, her voice barely above a whisper. Dante liked to think it was because she was so awed by his intimidating presence.

A smirk touched his lips. "Isn't it kinda rude to demand someone's name before introducing yourself?"

And he was gone.

* * *

Why, yes, the review button is ACTUALLY telling you to click it!


	5. Plans

**Disclaimer: **Do you think I'd be writing fanfiction if I owned DMC?

* * *

Emilia could've screamed.

The guy in the red coat just went _poof!_, and she had no idea how. Now, in his place, a dandy group of demons decided to attack the fleeing public.

It seems as if Nero's and the stranger's battle only lasted a few minutes (apparently it wasn't even enough time for Credo and his sister to get away), and everyone was still running around and screaming instead of trying to get to relative safety. Emilia sighed in exasperation. What a bunch of lemmings people could be!

Emilia leaped from her place high on the church's rising spirals, the embers already dancing around her skin. She landed in the middle of a group of demons, quickly burning through the surrounding Scarecrows. The sounds of feet pounding into the ground behind her caused her to turn, revealing Nero, Credo, and...whatever her name was. She couldn't exactly remember it at the moment.

Nero shouted at Credo and what's-her-face to go on and get to safety. The siblings rushed forward into the scattering crowd as Nero waylaid into some demons, but the girl noticed a crying boy and snatched herself away from her brother to go and assist him. Which would've been great and helpful, had she be trained to wield a sword to ward off the demons that suddenly surrounded them.

With a sigh, she made a move toward the girl, but Nero beat her to the chase. The demons burst open as his sword hacked them in half, spewing their contents all over the pavement.

Demon hunting could be...really _gross_, to put it lightly.

Nero finally spurred the Songstress into escaping as a few more demons sprung into the fight, their blade appendages twitching excitedly.

Emilia mulled over a quick decision. They were only three of them, so Nero was more than capable of handling them on his own.

Besides, ever since Emilia set eyes on him, she wanted _her _slice of a fight with the man dressed in the red trench coat. She wanted to see how well she could go toe-to-toe with him.

He was the biggest challenge someone had posed in a very long time. So sue her if it made her a little giddy and reckless.

Nero scoffed at her in amusement as she began walking in the opposite direction of him and the demons. "Well, you aren't going to give me a hand, are you?" The sarcasm in his tone was evident.

Emilia smirked lightly. "Nope."

Before Nero could retort, she had already nimbly climbed over a wall of rubble and disappeared.

Nero frowned at the demons slowly lumbering toward him. "Well, _someone _likes dramatic exits."

Not that he had very much room to talk.

–

Emilia was cold.

Really.

Freaking.

_Cold._

After she eliminated some demonic elements inside the city that were terrorizing citizens, she continued toward HQ, hoping to find someone she could tax for information. But, alas, all seem deserted...and oddly blizzard-y. This was a port city, so why the hell was it snowing like this in the middle of _spring_?

Emilia rubbed her hands together fervently as she pressed on through the thickening snow storm. The cold was making her demonic side sluggish, downright insufferable, and increasingly vocal.

"_For the love of Lord Sparda, girl! Can't you walk any faster or with more gusto or **something**? I'll be an icicle-thing in five minutes, give or take!" _

Her demon had been making comments like that for at least the last hour, and it was really beginning to grate on her already frazzled nerves. She hissed angrily. _I'm going as fast I can, stupid! _

"_Now, now; there's no need for name calling!" _

Emilia's furious cry echoed through the low moan of the ice storm. "God, would you just shut the _hell _up?"

The noise of crackling ice filled Emilia's ears and calculating red eyes flickered through the sheets of white ahead of her.

With a growl of extreme annoyance, Emilia drew her blade.

"_Now look what you did! We could've gotten through here undetected, but, **nooo**, you had to alert some lowly little vermin of our presence!" _

"We? You're just sitting there and complaining!" Emilia grumbled angrily. "I'm the one who has to do all the fighting!"

The Frosts leaped up into the wintry air and charged at Emilia, frozen claws eager to tear into her flesh. While they were magnificent in their own deadly, hellish way, Emilia had no qualms about destroying every last one of them. She shredded into the first one, using its moment of open defense to jab the final blows into its chest. The fiery-headed female slid under the next one before leaping into the air behind it to unleash a hellish barrage of flaming sword slashes on its back. With a bitter, pained cries, the first demons to fall to her blade dissolved on the spot. As the last one rushed at her, Emilia suddenly had the most brilliant idea on Earth. It was enough to make her smirk.

She crouched slightly, allowing the heat surge through her body and into her fingers. Flames flared to life around her hand, encasing her fist in red-hot fire. At last, the beast came close enough for her to strike. With an fierce, crackling roar, the fire erupted into the shape of a huge clawed arm as she thrust her arm forward, capturing the demon in its raging grip. The ice demon thrashed hectically and screamed in agony as it began to melt. Emilia closed her fist with a sense of finality, and the demon burst into a million shards of ice.

Emilia decided to ignore her demon's complaints about using its demonic energy without her permission, and she sheathed her blade with a sense of satiation. Now that destroying something burned off her previous vexation, she could now proceed to the castle.

Someone clapped behind her. Her shoulders hunched and the hairs on the back of her neck rose like those of an angry animal. She seriously did not need this right now, but against her better judgment, she turned lightly on her heel.

The annoying white-haired kid, looking irritatingly cool, was propped on one of the many half-destroyed pillars that surrounded the area.

He smirked. "So the midget _can _kick some ass."

She glared viciously at him. "Keep talking to me in that condescending tone, and I'll make sure to kick yours."

He held his arms up in defense. "I meant well!" Then he scowled, "Why do you eat me alive when I at least attempt to be a gentleman? I'm not a heathen, you know."

She scoffed. "Did you just _listen_ to what you said? Everything you say sounds like an insult!"

"Well, everything you say sounds defensive!"

"Of course it's going to! You always open your big, fat mouth first!"

"Well, you obviously give me a lot of material to work with," he said with that same _damn _condescending tone and that smug little smirk Emilia was very much beginning to hate.

"You know what?" she said curtly. "I don't have to deal with this. Bye." She began to walk away.

"But where are you going?"

"To the North Pole, stupid."

Nero noticed with a slight alarm how quickly the snow was swallowing up her slight form. Then he realized just _exactly_ what she was doing. "Hey!" he shouted angrily at her. "Don't you dare turn your back on me!"

Emilia stopped and turned to pin a nasty glare on him. "Just watch me." She re-initiated her march, and she was several feet ahead of Nero before he realized what was happening.

He dashed off after her, completely incensed. How dare she just walk away from him! They weren't finished yet!

A rumble undulated under their feet as an abandoned citadel began to cave in, and the two Order knights leaped high into the air to escape the crumbling overhang, using large chunks of ice and rock as platforms to relieve their fall.

They touched down on a patch of crumbling, snow-cloaked flagstone. A long-forgotten relic of some long-dead royal family, Fortuna Castle loomed before them, heavily shadowed by the moonlight.

Nero was about to blow up in Emilia's direction, but she was already walking across the bridge. They made their it about halfway when the strangest commotion happened on the rooftop above...Some sort of creepy, erotic moaning...

A tanned woman had her long, lovely legs wrapped provocatively (but securely) around a thrashing demon as they hurtled toward the ground. When she landed, the demon's head was forced through the grating. That had to be a seriously painful way to die.

More demons leaped from the rooftops, touching down heavily as the woman smoothly pulled her weapon from her right boot and tore into them with a seductive grace that entailed lots of steamy noises and questionable positions.

She stopped for a moment, thinking she had done away with them all. The one sneaking along carefully behind her was killed instantly courtesy of Nero's well-timed bullet.

Emilia shivered uncontrollably. That was like watching porn without _ever_ getting on the internet...

The woman stared at a coolly smirking Nero before she smiled gratefully. "I owe you thanks."

Nero stared at her in lustful wonder. He rubbed his nose, probably to remove the blood due to an aneurysm created by his lewd thoughts . "You're from the Order?...Never seen you before."

The woman began to walk toward him. "I'm new."

She held her hand out for him to shake. "Gloria." Gloria winked at him and tossed Emilia a genuinely friendly smile.

He gave her a suspicious look (probably to save face since he made an ass of himself only moments before), and he rudely shook off her cordial gesture.

She rolled her eyes as she engaged him again. "You're Nero, right? I've heard rumors."

He smirked. "Hasn't everyone?"

She stared at him seriously. "Quite a few, in fact, and none too flattering."

It was his turn to roll his eyes, and he twisted around to survey the frozen land around him. "So, what's the deal?"

"It's strange," she agreed. "No matter how many you kill, more will come."

He turned to walk toward the castle. "Then I'll leave that chore to you. I have some personal slaying to take care of."

She motioned to leave as well. "I'll go join up with the others; we'll take care of it."

Unfortunately, one of the demons decided to stir, and she mercilessly stabbed it with the heel of her boot. She sighed a little and smiled. "May the Savior be with you on your journey."

Nero scoffed as he walked toward the castle doors. "Savior..."

Gloria began to waltz along her way before she turned toward Emilia, who was still quietly leaning on one of the frostbitten stone banisters.

"What about you, sweetie? Have a course of action you plan to take?"

She shrugged absently. "I'm probably going to do some investigating. Something's really off about all this."

Gloria nodded quietly and smiled. "Good luck to you."

Emilia looked toward her before she disappeared into the thick snow. "You, too."

Nero suddenly realized that Emilia wasn't at the doors with him yet. He was still pretty pissed with her, but she didn't strike him as the type who would sit back and miss the action (but he would never admit out loud that he may possibly need her help on this little excursion). He turned to look for her, and he noticed she was standing in the middle of the bridge, a thoughtful look on her face.

He called out to her, "Hey, are you comin' in or what? I don't have all freaking century, you know!"

Emilia leafed through her options, nose scrunched in indecision. "...Nah. I have some other ways I can get around. I'll meet you down in Agnus's lab."

Nero stared at her questioningly. "Who the hell is that and—"

"Trust me. You'll have to go down there. It won't take long for Agnus to sniff you out, especially with that glow stick you have for an arm."

He frowned as he stared down at his arm, suddenly feeling a little sensitive. "...It's not a glow stick!"

"I honestly say that in all niceness. May the Force be with you!"

Nero stared at her skeptically. "What's up with quoting _Star Wars_?"

"Would you rather me tell you 'may the Savior be with you'? We need all the luck and blessings and crap we can get. This isn't going to be easy."

Nero gave the imposing doors a good, hard tug as he snorted. "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Emilia watched carefully as he finally entered the castle and shut the doors behind him. She was now alone in the swirling snow.

_Ready to do this? _

"_Don't expect me to be able to keep this up for long. Too cold." _Her demon sniffed pointedly.

Emilia huffed. _Well, excuuuse me, O prissy princess. _

Her demon snorted. _"Hush." _

Emilia closed her eyes and exhaled slowly as her demon pooled its energy into her limbs, and Emilia centered it into her shoulder blades. Gray-dusted wings exploded painfully from Emilia's skin, shredding through her clothes and bursting out into the white flurries of snow.

The knightess flexed them experimentally; it had been a while since she had used them. Almost too long, she thought with sailing exhilaration. She shot high into the air, using the icy gusts to gain altitude.

She was soon sailing over the tall towers of Fortuna Castle, eyes training over the white terrain.

Time to investigate.

* * *

This is your conscience telling you to review...


	6. Clash

**Disclaimer: **Devil May Cry es el propietario de Capcom.

* * *

Emilia smirked as she gazed at the Man in Red through her hiding place in the bushes. She had finally tracked the damn man down. (And she had veered well off her planned course just for this!) Now she was going to get her well-deserved fight! Nero wasn't the only one that was going to get some action!

There he was, resting on a rock after just destroying a whole hoard of demons. He flicked the hair out of his eyes and glanced over to where Emilia currently hid.

Damn. She'd been discovered.

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, kid. How color blind do you take me to be?"

Emilia's eyebrows twitched, and she scowled.

Always the fucking hair.

Deciding it would just be best to get out of the stupid bushes, Emilia crept out while pulling at all the leaves and twigs that had somehow tangled their way into her curly hair.

She was at a loss when she finally made it out of the edge of the forest. Of course, she had planned this awesome conversation where she came back with a bunch of witty comments, but it all died on her tongue as she shyly stared at him. He was very handsome now that she was close enough to realize it, and it made her extremely nervous.

He rolled his eyes at her obvious hesitance. "And here I was thinking you were some kind of spitfire. What's your name, girly?"

Emilia's eyes narrowed upon remembering what he told her earlier. "Isn't it rude to ask someone's name before introducing yourself?"

His mouth opened before the recognition flared in his blue-eyed gaze. He smirked. "Dante."

She nodded. "Emilia."

This Dante made a noise in the back of his throat. "So, Emilia, what drives you to come all the way out here? It isn't my dashing good looks, is it?" He grinned suggestively.

Emilia almost groaned. She had discovered another Leon! Oh, joy! "No, I want to fight you."

He gave her a strange look and burst into hysterical laughter. "...You?...Fight me?"

She glared at him viciously. "What? You don't think I can take you on?"

This only made him laugh harder. "...Ah, no. It's just that—wow. Teenagers around here. All they want to do is fight."

She shrugged, albeit a bit irritably. "It's not like we have much better to do."

His laughter died down into amused little chuckles. "I can see that." He pinned her with a ponderous stare, and he seriously considered his options.

Dante sighed, stood up, and propped Rebellion on his broad shoulders. "Fine. But, remember, you're the one that came asking me first."

The two circled each other slowly, analyzing each other's build and stance.

_Well, she's small and light, _Dante reasoned, _so she's probably very quick but not very powerful. _

_He's big and heavy, _Emilia reasoned, _so he's probably very powerful but not very quick._

The two lunged at one another. Rebellion and Shadow's Bane clashed in a bright shower of sparks, and the two realized that they had misjudged their opponent. Dante found that he was actually having a little trouble holding her back, and Emilia realized that her initial speed would not be enough to outmaneuver him.

They both leaped backward.

Dante gazed at her appraisingly. "Seems I underestimated you."

Emilia didn't even bat an eyelash. "I would say the same about you."

She disappeared from his line of sight. Dante successfully predicted where she was to appear next, and he parried her vicious slashes.

He grinned at her pinched expression. "Ready to give up and declare me the victor?"

Something dangerous flashed in her unnaturally bright eyes. "Never!"

"Have it your way, then!" he cackled.

He wormed his way past her defense, and he was able to nick her right shoulder. Though she was talented enough to twist herself around Rebellion do avoid most of the damage, it stood with Dante gaining first blood.

It continued on like this for several minutes. He got in a few more cuts edgewise, and she still had yet to land a blow on him. She wasn't nearly as wild or cocky as that kid he fought earlier, but she had plenty of other things to her advantage. She had footwork almost as good as Dante's, and she was very talented in adapting to the subtle changes in her fighting environment.

Emilia knew she was getting nowhere with this, as his combat skills were, in all honesty, vastly superior to hers. She understood that, if this would've been an entirely serious battle, he would've sliced her to ribbons at this point.

She needed to end this now.

Her demon chuckled as the plan formed in Emilia's mind, and it obligingly pooled its fire into Emilia's limbs. Sparks flew from her skin, and soon she was encased in the greedy, raging flames of battle.

"Well, great balls of fire!" Dante exclaimed as he stepped back a safe distance, laughing at his own joke. "You're just full of surprises, huh?"

His smile faltered as fire exploded all around him, causing several trees to break from their roots...

And fall right on top of him. All he could think was, _Oh, I totally did not expect that. _

Smoke filled his lungs uncomfortably. He looked up at the unsmiling female and took note of the barely noticeable gleam of triumph in her eyes. He wheezed, "How 'bout we call it a draw?"

One slim brow rose on her forehead.

He frowned. "Okay...I'll let you win this time."

Emilia rolled her eyes, and with something of a smile and a gesture of her hand, instantly staunched all the fire. She grabbed Dante's arms and extracted him from under the lazily smoking trees.

Dante found himself slightly in awe with this girl and with this whole Fortuna situation in general. Two half-demons in _one_ city, and one of them some form of fire demon and the other a possible descendant of Sparda. Crazy. Completely crazy.

After he had coughed most of the smoke out of his lungs, Dante grinned boyishly at her. "Well, how about a rematch sometime after we sort out this mess?"

He held out his hand, and she shook it. "I think I'd enjoy that very much."

He spared her one last glance and flashed her a dazzling smile as they parted in different directions of the forest.

Emilia cursed her wildly beating heart as she walked away. _All these pretty, white-haired men are going to be the death of me._

Emilia could feel her demon grin mischievously at this. _"A wonderful death, indeed."_

–

Ugh. Those gay-ass trampoline things. It was annoying as hell trying to stay on top of those things long enough to get anywhere. Don't even mention the stupid places that you to grapple to (they disappeared!) that had _spikes _very near it, and if you fell back into the room below you had to find a new hoard of scarecrows.

Eventually, he worked his way to this strange floor. It almost looked like a lab. The room he was in had nothing but a generator-type thing in the middle. He was stuck behind a thick sheet of glass. Not much to break through with a little patience, but Nero was quite running out of that virtue.

His arm glowed eerily. He looked around, and something caught his eye. An ōkatana, shattered into two halves. He was achingly aware of its scream of agony.

Movement distracted him. It was a hunched man with dark skin and hair, carrying a clipboard. He certainly looked the part of a mad scientist.

"So," the man began slowly, the disdain evident in his voice, "you've come. Just as I expected."

Nero's head quirked to the side a bit. "...Who the hell are you?"

The man bowed dramatically. "I...am Agnus. Working in secrecy, very few p-p-p-people are privy to my existence."

Nero rolled his eyes and turned in a full circle to get a good view of the room. "Funny, to figure an Order official out for a stroll in a hellhole kinda place like this..."

"_Hellhole?_" shouted Agnus furiously. "Watch your words!"

As Nero scoffed, Agnus continued on his insulting rampage. "Just as foul-mouthed as I heard...the rumors prove true, as will the new ones concerning your d-d-d-demise."

Nero was quick to come back. "Don't you think that's a little harsh? Killing me because the way I t-t-t-talk?"

Agnus said nothing. Only smiled.

Demons soon began swirling around him the room, bodies and wings razor sharp.

"Great," Nero intoned grimly. "More demons."

He drew his blade as Agnus spoke again. "This...this is all Credo's doing. It was Credo who ordered you to follow Dante...It was Credo who brought you here!"

"Dante?" Nero shouted angrily. "You mean the man who killed His Holiness? What the hell is going on here?"

"I don't have to answer to you. For you are already as good as d-d-d-_dead_." Angus smiled viciously and turned to walk away.

"I beg to differ!"

And Nero began a grisly game of hack 'n slash. He fought on fruitlessly for a while, nearly dying in the process, but he began to realize his only way out was to shatter the glass.

Demons dived toward him. He'd kill one or two, then grab one with his Devil Bringer and hurl it at the glass. Several demons later, the glass shattered. The demons stopped coming, and Nero launched himself at Agnus.

The explosion of glass had knocked Agnus off his feet. Realizing what was about to happen, Agnus began to attempt a futile escape. Nero came closer still, and despite looking casual, his muscles were taut and ready to spring.

"Tha-tha-tha-that's demonic power! How can that be?"

"Look who's talkin', jackass. Now answer my question! What the hell's going on here?"

Agnus chose not to answer him, instead looking around the room to avoid Nero's sharp gaze. His eyes found the glowing blue of Nero's right arm. Captivated, Agnus exclaimed, "How profound!" Agnus had suddenly found a way to rise to his feet, and he scuttled closer to Nero. "How magnificent!" Nero took several large steps backward.

"Okay, did you even hear me?" Nero sliced half-heartedly at Agnus to get him away, but Agnus caught the edge easily.

"If you want answers, then I shall give them to you." Angus pushed Nero's sword away from him forcefully. "It has only been a few years since I began this research. Could we find a way to isolate and bind demonic power? It could enable us to take over the world! ...And that—that is the wish of His Holiness!"

Nero could feel his disgust rising. "What a crock...And you may as well ditch the efforts, pal, because His Holiness is dead!"

"Ah," Agnus began smoothly, "but His Holiness has been reborn...as an _angel_!"

Nero shook his head in amusement. "An angel..."

Agnus took no notice of this and continued. "And soon, soon, so shall I." He stooped low, and Nero followed his glittering gaze as soon as he rose again.

Another demon appeared from out of nowhere and impaled him against a wall, once, twice. Blood exploded from his mouth. He breathed raggedly.

"See what just a small fraction of my research has yielded? Look how beautiful this white armor stands!" His tone became much darker. "You have no idea the hardship to make just _one_ armor come to life! I had to capture and control countless demons to harness their souls...summoning them alone was an almost insurmountable task."

Nero suddenly found the will to speak again, though it was weak. "Summoning...? So it was you...who made the gate?"

"Yes, yes, the Hellgate! I created it merely as a reference, in substitution, for the real gate. But after utilizing an incredibly powerful Devil's Arm...it proved sufficient."

"What in the hell are you talking about...?"

Agnus pursed his lips. "You should rest." He summoned another blade demon and shoved into Nero's gut. Blood spewed violently from his mouth again. "Soon, you shall be my next subject for experimentation. So I can learn a little something from you...and that arm."

Nero raised his head and glared deeply at the hunched scientist. "Never...!" He spat, his blood and saliva hitting Agnus square in the cheek.

Agnus growled, forced the blade even farther into Nero's body, and ripped it out viciously. "T-t-t-take him out."

Nero had never been in this kind of situation before. He was in so much pain, his body was going numb from shock. The white armor floated ominously toward him. His eyelids felt so heavy...He sunk into black nothingness.

He heard himself say something. "Kyrie, run!" Her scream filled his ears and poured into his soul.

"Nero!"

"Kyrie!" he screamed frantically. "Kyrie!" Kyrie!"

He had to do something. She was in trouble!

Something inside him awakened with the force of a dam breaking. It surrounded him and consumed him.

Devil Bringer flared brightly and throbbed with energy. The Devil's Arm somehow appeared unbroken in his hand. He struck down the demons violently, the energy burning them to nonexistence. The energy crashed into Agnus and forced him to reveal his other form.

"How?" the transformed Agnus wailed. "Not even I could succeed in restoring it!"

"From that day forth..." Nero whispered hoarsely, "My arm changed...and a voice echoed—_power, give me more power! _And if I become a demon, so be it. I'll endure the exile. Anything to protect _her._"

Demonic energy surged from his blade in a deadly arch, only missing Agnus by inches and detonating against the ceiling.

Agnus fled. Devil Bringer absorbed the sword. Nero felt completely and utterly drained as his new devil trigger gave out. He collapsed soundly on the floor, his breathing loud and heavy. His hand automatically went to his chest, which was now completely unblemished.

He sat there for a silent moment or two, examining his arms in shock and wondering just what to do with himself.

His coping mechanism: a long bout of hysterical laughter.

After his last psychotic giggles died down, he composed himself. "I should get back to headquarters...If what Agnus said is true...Credo must've known something."

–

Nero testily pushed tree limbs heavy laden with moss and forest goop out of his line of sight. All sorts of nasty little demons came hunting for him, including a new one. It had a bad dread job for a body, skinny chicken legs, these little horns, and morose red eyes. They were annoyingly easy to kill, but he found out very quickly not to let them near scarecrows.

The sound of metal screaming through the air pricked at his ears. _Gloria? Emilia?...Dante? _He rushed in the direction of the sound, only to be greeted by the sight of wings and armor.

He quickly drew his sword and poised himself for an attack. But, as a demon whizzed past his head screaming death, he had to reconsider that notion. The demon turned out _not _to be one of those white armors, but something else something entirely.

His jaw nearly dropped off. "..Emilia?"

"Close, love." She smiled slyly at him, and he found a shiver licking up his spine as he stared into her smoldering gaze.

"Well, if you aren't Emilia, then who are you?"

She smirked and strutted toward him. He found he could not tear his eyes off of the easy swing of her hips. "I'm her other half."

"Other half?"

"Oh, please, don't tell you haven't figured it out yet. Emilia is like that lovely piece of man-flesh Dante. Half-human, half something else." He gulped as she boldly stood mere inches from his face.

Her finger traced circles on his chest. She practically purred at him. His face began to heat up, and he stuttered, "H-half something else?"

She smiled coyly and gazed at him from beneath her sooty lashes. "You already know the answer to that."

His train of thought degraded further as her fingers trailed up his neck and to his jawline. "I d-do?" Her cryptic smirk was the only reply he received.

As she began to circle him, her fingers never leaving his frame and ever wandering farther down, he decided it was best to change the subject. "So, uh, what brings you out here?"

"The same thing you're out here for. My container is looking for answers. Not that I particularly care."

She stopped as soon as she reached the zipper of his vest that was getting dangerously close to his belt buckle. Now that she stood still, he could feel the surprising amount of heat she generated through his clothes. She side-glanced, and her expression grew a bit irritable. "Sorry, love, it seems I'm going to have to leave you now." Her expression grew crafty again. "Nice chatting with you."

He was about to ask her what she meant, but she had been consumed by a flurry of feathers. Emilia stood in her place, a few inches shorter from the lack of high-heeled boots. She looked at him with wide gold eyes.

Now that he had met her wild counterpart, she seemed amazingly tame.

Emilia figured out her hands were grazing Nero's belt buckle, and she promptly removed them. "I'm so sorry," she quickly spluttered as she turned nearly as red as her hair, "she can get really out of hand."

"No worries," Nero said with a coolness he didn't quite feel. He now realized how close he had been to getting molested, and it struck him as almost funny that he wouldn't have minded that one bit...but that would've been like getting molested by Emilia, too. That was just...weird.

He rubbed at his sore neck. "Uh, found Agnus, like you said. That's one crazy bastard. He did tell me that Credo knows something, though. And that His Holiness had been reborn as an _angel_. What bullshit."

"Oh, that's nice, I haven't found anything—" Something clicked inside her head. A few more pieces of the puzzle worked themselves into place. "_Shit_!"

She was now beginning to understand just _why_ she had been used as a test subject.

_Help me out here!_

Emilia could feel her dread rise as her demon smirked. _I'll do it if you kiss Nero._

_...What?_

_That's what I was about to do before you so rudely interrupted me._

_No, you were going to molest him._

Her demon chuckled. _Well, it would've been for you._

"That's a lie if I ever heard one," Emilia muttered to herself as pressed her palm to her forehead in irritation. She hadn't quite learned how to force her will on her demon yet, so this was a tricky situation. There was a cliff quite near where they were standing, so she could make a quick and easy escape if need be.

Emilia frowned. _I hate you_.

Her demon's smirk grew into a smug grin. _Good girl. _

"So, yeah," she spluttered. "Gotta go. Super busy." She ran up to a confused Nero, stood as high on her toes as she could (which was quite difficult—why did Nero have to be the size of freaking Godzilla?), and pecked him fleetingly as her wings burst from her skin.

Flapping her wings as hard as she could, she dashed as fast as her legs could carry her from that spot. She dove off the cliffs and skimmed the treetops as she waited for a breeze to catch her wings. It wasn't long before that happened, and soon she was soaring into the blue expanse of the sky toward her next destination.

Nero couldn't help but shake his head as she eventually shrunk into a tiny dot in the sky. "What...the hell."

–

_Come on, you know you liked it._

_Shut up already._

A snarky little chuckle. _You just can't face the truth._

Emilia would have argued with her further, until the scent of demon and human blood intertwined around her.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose. There was something awfully familiar about the smell of that human blood, like that one time Leon sliced his finger open cutting up vegetables...

She stopped dead in her tracks, before she abruptly started in that direction again. Emilia drew Shadow's Bane, gripping the hilt until her knuckles turned white.

Emilia, feeling her panic growing at an alarming rate, burst through the foliage and gasped at the sight that greeted her. Leon was positioned in a ring of mutilated demons, shakily standing in a pool of his own blood with something attached to his neck. The small demon's tentacle-like body shuddered excitedly as it sensed Emilia's presence. She was prey.

Leon's head slowly raised, revealing red eyes. As his sword arm twitched, he charged at her.

Emilia said nothing as she parried his blow; there was nothing to say. She knew he had been possessed by one of the chimera seeds, and the only way to snap him out of it was to get it off his back.

He swung viciously, his blows powerful but very slow. She blocked several times, taking care not to injure him any further. After taking a few collective steps backward, Leon charged her again.

He struck, his sword just barely gouging the flesh of her hand when Emila saw her opening. Her heart wrenched at the thought of what she was about to do, but she didn't know the next time she'd get the opportunity.

She stabbed him.

Leon screamed hoarsely as her sword bit through skin and muscle and reappeared though his back. In that moment, Emilia, with flames licking up her hands, grabbed for the chimera seed and ripped it from his neck.

The chimera squealed shrilly before disintegrating into ash.

Emilia extracted her sword quickly and as painlessly as possible. His eyes returned to their normal shade of gray-blue. As he glanced at her, Leon collapsed onto Emila.

After his ragged breathing steadied some, he whispered, "...Thanks."

Despite herself, Emilia could feel tears burning her eyes. She had honestly never seen so much blood. "I could've just killed you!"

He chuckled weakly. "I know."

"What happened?"

He sucked in a laborious breath. "Found out Sanctus's plans. I fled. He sent them to kill me."

"What's going on?"

Leon's eyes began to dull. "He's going to revive the Savior." He allowed his heavy eyelids to close. "I'm so tired."

He went limp in her arms.

Panic and bile rose in her throat as she carefully placed him on her back. As her demon pushed her wings through her back again, Emilia began to urgently pray to any saint or deity she could think of. Leon couldn't die.

She had to get him to help. Immediately.

–

She touched down just outside the infirmary. People were lined up outside the doors in varying states of disarray, though the worst of it was broken bones.

Without thinking of the other people, she shoved them aside and rushed into the doors. A nurse intercepted her. "Miss, please wait—!"

She didn't finish her sentence because she noticed just how bloody Emilia was. The nurse's eyes traveled to the cargo on her back. Her eyes widened noticeably.

Pursing her lips and tugging Emilia in her direction, the nurse said, "Come with me."

Emilia and Leon were escorted quickly to a room, where the doctors carefully laid Leon out and worked to stabilize him. It took them an hour to achieve that, with Emilia gripping his hand as if her very existence depended on it.

Several of the nurses and doctors filed tiredly out of the room, now covered in as much blood as Emilia was. The nurse that originally brought them back squeezed Emilia's shoulders comfortingly. "Go home, sweetie. You've done your part to save his life. I'll make sure to get word to you if his condition changes."

Emilia nodded numbly, not trusting herself to say anything. It scared her, seeing Leon so pale and feeble.

With one last glance back, the nurse left the room.

Emilia squeezed Leon's hand one last time and kissed his forehead. "I'll be back."

And in the hour it took to get him stable, Emilia had allowed her anger to twist and simmer into a neat package of pure, unadulterated fury. Now it was time to unleash that carefully cultivated rage upon Sanctus and his little minions.

As she left the hospital and walked toward the forests, the lust for vengeance burned in her heart so viciously that her chest ached. She clenched her fists, her lengthening canines bared.

She was going to set all of Fortuna ablaze.

* * *

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. :DDDDD


	7. Fin

**Disclaimer: **DMC + rights = Capcom

* * *

Emilia rushed through the streets of Fortuna, which ran wild with demons, and mutilated as many of them as she could possibly run her sword through at one time.

It was now she found herself so distracted by the destruction she was causing that her demon forced herself over Emilia's conscious and took control of her body.

_Damn it, **let me out!**_

"No," her now-embodied demon said firmly, "As much as I like being reckless, you're just being _careless_. That's going to get both of us killed."

Emilia, as angry as she was, could not deny the logic of her words. _Fine...just make sure to maul as many of them as possible, okay?_

A feral grin overtook her demon's face as the smell of blood and gore enticed her senses. "I wouldn't do anything less than that, love."

–

The demoness touched down just outside of headquarters, reveling in Emilia's burning desire to wipe the floor with Credo's, Agnus's, or anyone else's face that happened to be contained within that building at the time. Why, she was practically drunk with Emilia's violent passion. With a satiated smile, she lazily unwrapped her conscious from over Emilia's, and she disappeared with a flurry of feathers as Emilia surged forward.

She chuckled to herself. It was low, humorless, and dangerous; one that made even her demon bristle with surprise. She could smell Credo and Agnus, and, _boy,_ was she going to mutilate them. And maim them. And mangle them. And...you get the point.

Emilia dashed up up the long pathway to HQ, her sword arm merely a blur as some very idiot demons tried to block her path. She had just made it to the beginning of the stairs outside of the grand building...only to be greeted by the site of Nero handing Credo's ass to him.

_Well...there goes my chance._

The ginger, in her shock, could only stand there and breathe laboriously as Nero beat Credo into submission. Just as Nero was about the deliver the final ass-whipping blow, Kyrie conveniently walked outside to witness just what Nero had done. As she freaked out, Agnus appeared behind her. Credo and Agnus argued about God knows what, and Kyrie...was carried off. Credo was not far behind in the defense of his sister.

Emilia could feel her demon's shock, and the demonic entity said, _"She's a miserable little waif, isn't she?"_

_...I'm starting to think so._

Nonetheless, she begrudgingly decided to be neighborly and help Nero out. Though she had wanted to do it herself, he _did _kick Credo's punk ass, and she had to respect that. Her demon automatically jettisoned her wings through Emilia's shoulder blades. They had done that process so many times that day, it didn't even hurt anymore.

She leaped into the air, hovered overhead, and called down to the white-haired male beneath her. "Want me to go after her for you?"

Nero just stood there, frozen, staring at the space everyone else had previously been. He looked at her blankly for a long moment, until a dangerous look of realization dawned on his face.

Emilia's lips tightened into a grim line. She herself had finally figured out that _she _was the main component of their successful experimentation. Those white suits of armors, Credo's and Agnus's "angel" forms—those were from studying _her._ And now Nero had figured that out, too.

The half-demon suddenly began shaking, and anger burned in his icy eyes. "You! You _helped _them! Get the hell away from me, and if I ever see you again, _I will kill you_!"

"_Well, so much for being neighborly, love," _her demon commented flatly.

Normally, Emilia would've allowed Nero's words to rolls of her shoulders, and she would've calmly explained her situation. But nothing about this whole damn thing was _normal_, and her patience had officially broken after her confrontation with Leon. She was well aware of Nero's problems, but she had lived with the hate and fear of her own flesh and blood her whole life. She didn't need his accusative bullshit. The only reason all this was happening was because her own damn grandfather signed her off as a lab rat, and she could've been killed for defying his orders. He was that influential.

So, while her mark was definitely there, _none _of this was her fault. That little brat was making it out like she had willingly consorted with that pack of scum bags, and it suddenly made her so angry that sparks began to ignite and fluctuate dangerously around her delicate frame.

She hurled her words at him. "You _stupid _boy...you have no idea the hell I've gone through just because of them!"

And she flew away without another word, still in the direction of where Kyrie was, because she would not stoop to his level.

–

God, Emilia was so pissed. She couldn't ever remember being _this _angry. Not even when she left the hospital basically searching for something to kill. She was so immensely furious that she could barely keep her grip on her power to prevent everything within a hundred-yard radius of her from combusting. Despite her best efforts, most of the plant matter in her path burst into flames.

_Can't believe I'm being so charitable for that idiotic little ingrate._

"_That's just the male race for you. Can't live with them, can't live without them."_

She spent the next several minutes...hours...days? Chasing after Credo and Agnus with no avail. Demons and terrorized people in need of saving kept slowing her down.

_It's useless. The little motherfucker can do it himself._

Her demon chuckled in the recesses of her mind, causing Emilia's irritation to deepen further, if that was possible.

"_Come, love, why don't we head back to the city? My gut tells me that's where all the action is going to be soon."_

_Your gut is almost always wrong, _was her very curt reply.

There was a short silence from the demoness, along with a flash of red frustration behind Emilia's eyelids_. "Just go!"_

Well, there wasn't much else to do here now that she had decided to ditch her chase.

Emilia nodded silently, and Vincentia pushed her wings through Emilia's back.

With one powerful flex of her quickly fatiguing muscles, they were soaring in the air, back toward the city.

–

He lost her. He lost her _again. _What in the hell was wrong with him? Was he so weak that he couldn't even save one girl?

As his agonized screams shredded through the air, Nero's fists pounded onto the floor, fragmenting the intricate marble beneath him.

And just look want Emilia done. Even after he accused her of such terrible things, she still went to search for Kyrie, still tried to help him out. He understood now that she wasn't involved, and he was deeply sorry what he said to her.

He had so much forgiveness to ask for.

–

Lady took her anger for Dante out on the unsuspecting demons infesting the area, pumping them full of lead.

She had been stuck with back-up duty...again...while Dante got to play hero and get all the credit.

That son of a bitch.

She was willing to forgive Trish, though, who had shown up only minutes earlier. The demoness drew Luce and Ombra, lightning crackling from the barrels, and shot several demons. "Sorry I'm a little late."

–

Emilia's skin prickled as the city rumbled ominously under her feet. She gazed toward the source of the sound, only to be greeted by the sight of a massive Sparda statue hovering toward the city. Thankfully, she had allowed her wings to remain in the open, so she was already dashing off again and leaping into the air.

The closer she got to the statue, the more distinct the energy thrumming through the air became. It felt like Nero...? And possibly Kyrie? Her eyes landed on the smooth blue stones pitted into the statue's forehead and chest. It felt like their life forces were permeating from there.

She found Dante standing on a slowly crumbling tower, where she touched down beside him.

His exotic blue eyes glanced toward her mirthfully. "Well, if it isn't little Emmy!"

She bristled with surprise and anger at the nickname he used for her, but she decided that there were more important things that needed attending to at the moment than her pride. "I'm going with you."

"I'd rather you not be around the huge lump of marble. Wouldn't want your cute little ass to get hurt, now would I?"

She was about to give him a violent chewing out about just how capable of protecting herself she was, but he cut her off again. "It would really help me out if you found Trish and Lady and helped evacuate the city."

Emilia found herself not being able to say no to the pleading look on his handsome face. She looked down and grumbled all sorts of profanities under her breath until she ground out, "Fine."

He grinned at her, before using all the demons flying around them as a launching pad for higher ground.

She watched irritably as Dante grew smaller, before she finally realized just what he said.

That bastard had called her a cute little ass.

–

First things first, she had the hospital evacuated. She sure as hell wasn't going to let Leon die as hard as she worked to get him there, not to mention the other wounded patients wouldn't be able defend themselves if the threat presented itself.

When they were all safely outside the danger zone, she worked her way through the rest of the burning, crumbling city trying to find the women named "Lady" and "Trish."

Emilia turned one last corner, only to have a bullet graze the top of her right wing. She hissed and dodged another onslaught as she unsheathed Shadow's Bane.

She caught sight of her attacker, a woman with short black hair clad rather scantily in white, and her senses bore into the overdrive of battle. The woman shot at her again, but the bullets seemed to fly at her in slow motion, and she dodged them easily.

"_Stop!_" another feminine voice yelled, and the black-haired woman instantly ceased fire, but still had her guns trained on Emilia suspiciously.

"Mary, that's Emilia. She's on our side."

Emilia glanced at the other woman quizzically, only to be struck with a sense of familiarity. Now the she thought about it, the voice and the voluptuous shape seemed like...

"Gloria?" Emilia asked with alarm. What happened to the white hair and the strange costume?

The blonde-haired woman smiled slyly. "Actually, my name is Trish."

Emilia nodded slowly. God, this was so not the time for head games. "So, you're Trish," she said gradually to the blonde woman and then looked at the black-haired female, "and you're Lady." They both nodded. She sighed with relief. "I've been told to look for you."

"Dante," Trish sighed with a shake of her head.

Lady frowned. "Always leaving the women to do the cleaning up." She finally holstered her guns. "You _do_ know you look like those white knights that keep flying around?"

"I've noticed," replied Emilia with a wry smile. She figured that was Lady's way of apologizing. "Well...do you guys need anymore help?"

"Well," Trish, assuming a thoughtful position, began carefully, "the hospital—"

"It's done."

Trish smiled. "Well, I guess the only thing left to do is get a good seat and watch the battle play out, hm?"

Both Emilia and Lady growled under their breaths. It seemed that Lady, like Emilia, preferred to be in the middle of the action and did not appreciate sitting on the sidelines while somebody else did all the work.

The three of them ambled along in comfortable silence, and it didn't take them long to find a nice enough view to watch the spectacle play out below. The sculpture was indeed massive, and Dante was flashy enough that you could spot him a mile away.

Dante had finally coaxed Nero out of his prison, Kyrie clasped firmly in his arms. Emilia, to her great surprise, found herself a little jealous of this display. Then again, it looked as if Lady and Trish were turning a little green with envy themselves, mumbling under their breaths about how Dante didn't treat them with such loving care.

Nero's moves were clumsier than Dante's, but she did think his glowing left arm was certainly interesting and very handy (no pun intended). At this point, Sanctus had overtaken the statue and tried his best to destroy Nero, who made very short of work of him by using Devil Bringer to crush the sculpture's head. It collapsed with a magnificent crash that sent shards of marble and dust in such a large scope that they were even enveloped in dust on their high perch.

It was a spectacular end to all the craziness they had endured in the past—God, Emilia couldn't tell you how long—days, maybe? Though she would never admit it out loud, she was glad that she had stayed out of the fray. It had been just that satisfying of a battle to watch.

Dante leaped up to where they were standing, grinning like he had just the lottery. "Did we give you a good spectacle, ladies?"

Trish and Lady nonchalantly blew him off, as they had all seen it before. Dante deflated sadly like a too-old balloon, and he turned to Emilia hopefully. "It was good, right?"

She tried her best to keep a straight face, but her golden eyes still twinkled with awe. "I suppose you did pretty well."

"Ah, see!" he said happily as he ruffled her hair, "At least she appreciates my talent!"

"Oh, by the way, Dante," she began, and he turned to stare at her questioningly. His line of vision was greeted by a slim fist that slammed so viciously into his jaw that it dislocated it. "_That's _for calling me a cute little ass," she growled.

"Oh, I like this one," whispered Lady to Trish as Dante tried to work his jaw back into alignment.

"It's a step up from being shot at," commented Dante dryly to himself. He gazed at the short redhead in front of him. "I suppose I deserved that."

She didn't say anything, but one of her eyebrows was cocked and her lips had that sassy curl to them, basically screaming _damn straight._ God, she was the secret lovechild of Trish and Lady! But her hair was red, so she was mutated! Even worse! He must've molested babies or something in his past life to deserve something like this.

Yeah, he just needed to stop thinking while he was ahead. Thinking never did him any good. _Ever._

"Well, kiddo," he said casually as he pulled a plain white business card from his jacket, "if you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to drop by." It wasn't often he met half-demons like her, and like himself, they were always magnets for trouble. He'd take the initiative to put forward the olive branch and go ahead and offer some good assistance if needed. Because, most of the time, someway and somehow, half-demons got sucked into world domination plots (like the one they had just foiled). Those were always annoying, nasty little things to get dragged into, so it was good to have back-up.

Emilia smiled slightly and accepted it from him. The two other females grinned at her and waved over their shoulders as they followed after Dante.

A huge hoard of demons showed up around Nero, but she was sure he could handle them by himself. He had just saved the world from domination by "The Savior," so he could handle a few measly scarecrows.

Besides, she really wanted to make sure her uncle and cousin were safe.

–

"Oh, Emilia! Thank Sparda you are safe!" Her uncle rushed toward her and clamped her in a very painful bear hug. He gasped at her clothing, "You're covered in blood! You're not wounded, are you?"

Emilia shook her head. She really didn't want to mention that most of it was probably Leon's.

"Goodness, girl, you've had it rough. Leon told me what happened."

Emilia could feel herself beginning to shrink. "He did...?"

"Yes, he told me how you saved his life."

"...But I almost killed him in the process."

He grinned at her and clasped her shoulder. "The keyword there is _almost_, isn't it? He's awake, if you want to see him."

Emilia could feel her demon chuckle, though it was slower and more languid than usual, from the sudden perkiness of Emilia's form. Her demon had expended a lot of her demonic energy for Emilia, so she was exhausted.

Now that she thought about it, Emilia also realized just how tired she was – and how sore. The top of her head to the tip of her feet positively ached, especially where she used her wings so much.

Emilia meekly stepped into the room they were keeping Leon in. He smiled at her as she came in and beckoned for her to sit in the chair beside his bed. Pain wracked her heart – he was very pale, and his eyes didn't gleam quite as brightly as they normally would when he smiled.

"So, it's all over, huh?" His voice was barely over a hoarse whisper, so thank goodness for her sharp hearing.

"Yeah," she said simply. A weight suddenly lifted off her shoulders as she finally realized it was _over_, and she stood up a little straighter and smiled.

"Did you kick plenty of ass?"

"The white-haired wonder seemed to beat me to it most of the time."

"That's very unlike you to let him do that."

Emilia shrugged. "I guess he and Dante were just meant to."

"Dante?"

"Yeah, remember the guy that assassinated His Holiness?"

Leon nodded, and Emilia launched into her story. He listened intently, never breaking his silence, until the flow of Emilia's words stemmed. It had taken her so long to tell all the details, it was dusk when she glanced toward the sky.

Visiting hours would be over soon, so Emilia bid him solemn goodbye. As she got up to leave, Leon grabbed onto her fingers and stopped her.

"I don't blame you, you know. You did what you had to do."

Emilia smiled grimly. "I know. It's just that you're supposed to stab things you dislike, not things you love very much."

"Oh, so I'm a thing now?"

Emilia couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips. "You've always been a thing."

"Oh, I see how this is gunna be."

She merely rolled her eyes. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Don't miss me too much."

"I won't!" she replied cheekily. He laughed quietly and wished her a goodnight, and she left with her uncle to return home. She was dreading the damage they were sure to see.

Their jaws dropped upon their arrival.

It was, by some miracle, completely standing. A few broken windows and long gashes in the walls were the only damage it received. She and her uncle practically moaned with relief.

Emilia walked numbly to her bedroom and paused long enough to tug off her ruined clothes. She didn't even bother taking a shower or pulling on any pajamas—she just flopped on her bed and instantly fell asleep.

The huntress ended up breaking her promise to see Leon the next day. She was much too busy sleeping.

–

_One month later..._

Emilia could say things were going relatively well. The rebuilding effort was in full swing, and everyone still had those warm fuzzies that came with coming together as a community due to traumatic experiences. But she could tell that wasn't going to last long. Very long at all.

Their newly-scabbed wounds were going to be reopened, family was going to be pitted against family, and Fortuna was going to reel with chaos. Their eyes were finally going to be opened to the very ugly truth. The Order's council elders were being tried for corruption, and all those records of those obscure private meetings and secret experiments would be out in the open. Including the documentation of the testing she was forced into.

Emilia figured it had only been a matter of time before she was run out, anyway. During the Savior incident, she had openly used her powers to get people to safety. And in a tight-knit community like this, news traveled like wildfire on a hot, windy day. She was already beginning to see the distrustful looks in their eyes.

A strong hand clasped her shoulder, and she was broken out of her thoughts. She turned from her place staring out the window to the person whom the appendage belonged to. It was Leon, and it still amazed her sometimes how much better he looked. He had been released from the hospital two weeks ago, and with his permission, she poured some of her demon's energy into him to heal the rest of his wounds. Of course, people inquired about his amazing recovery, but he smartly brushed it off as very good doctors and lots of healthy food.

He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and smiled at her. "What are you thinking so hard about?"

She glanced back at the window. "About how hard our family and its legacy is about to get screwed over in less than a week."

He chuckled a bit. "Ah, don't worry about it so much. It won't be that bad."

"You do realize that when all of Grandfather's dealings are brought to light, I'll be one of the people completely effed?"

"It'll all work out! I promise."

"People around here never change, Leon," she said quietly.

"But..." his eyebrows furrowed. "You shouldn't have to be punished. It's not fair."

She shrugged with a indifference that surprised Leon. "They'll do what they want, fair or not."

Leon spluttered with another reply, but she just stood up and shushed him. "It's fine. I'll cross that bridge when I get there." She smiled, patted his shoulder comfortingly, and walked out of the study.

Emilia pulled on her coat and exited their house out into the street. She deeply breathed in the lukewarm breeze, and it smelled of the steadily-approaching autumn. With a stretch and a yawn, she decided to search for a nice little patch of grass in the forest to take a nap.

She twined her way through the labyrinth of back alleys, preferring to keep out of everyone's path. Just as she wound around the last corner, a person touched down in the ground in front of her. She reacted out of instinct...and ended up kicking said being in the stomach.

"Ow! What the hell?" Nero shouted as he clutched at his smarting abdomen. "Is this how you greet someone?"

"Well, excuse me!" Emilia spluttered in a mixture of anger and shock. "Can't help it if I react violently if someone appears out from the middle of _nowhere_!"

"I thought you heard me coming!"

"I was in deep thought!"

His angry expression suddenly transformed into a unpleasant little smirk that Emilia didn't like one little bit. "...Didn't pin you down as the contemplative type."

Emilia could feel the very nasty reply building on her tongue, but she just clenched her jaw and fists. With narrowing eyes, she hissed, "If you're just here to insult me, you're wasting your time. I'm leav—"

"Okay, wait! Geez, I'm sorry. You can't take a joke, can you?"

"...Yeah, I'm leaving now."

"Damn it, I said I was sorry, so just freaking _wait_!"

God, that boy. That freaking boy. She sighed and turned back to face him. "Fine. What is it?"

"I just wanna say...I'm sorry."

Emilia honestly had to will herself to remember what he was apologizing for. The last month had put her brain in such a fritz it wasn't even funny. She finally remembered what he was talking about, and she said, "Are you seriously still worried about that?"

"...Well, yeah."

"...Hm, that's funny. I've forgotten about that until now."

His visage entirely deadpanned. "...Really?"

"Pretty much."

Nero face-palmed then, and he grumbled something along the lines of "Why do I even try?" under his breath.

She chuckled to herself as her sharp ears caught his words. "Well, anyway. I forgive you officially or whatever. See you later."

"Hey, wait!" he called again. "...What's going to happen to you when your grandfather goes on trial this week?"

Emilia paused. Should she really tell him her plans? But, then again, she trusted him. It just came with the territory of almost dying together. With her mind made up, she replied, "...I probably won't be here to find out."

His mind reeled with shock. "You're going to _leave_?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"But...why would you leave? You have family here!"

"Let's think about this a minute, Nero. I'm not entirely human as it is, and when it gets out that I was used to help create the Savior, I'll probably be banished, if not killed. Not to mention my uncle and cousin could be tried for treason for just housing me."

He attempted to say something to challenge her way of thinking, but he knew what she said was sadly true. "...Well...I suppose that makes sense."

"Of course it does."

"So...where are you going to go when you leave?"

She shrugged with a indifference she didn't feel. "I'll worry about it when I get out of Fortuna."

"You could probably call Dante."

She tapped a finger to her top lip in contemplation. "...I haven't thought about that."

He snorted. "You haven't been thinking about much at all, have you?"

Her lips twitched irritably. "That's funny coming from you."

Nero glared at her disapprovingly. "_Why_ can't you just take a joke?"

"Bye."

"Dammit!" he yelled as he ran after her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

–

Tomorrow morning was the trial. It was just past midnight in Fortuna, and all was in a hush. The calm before the storm.

She had her things packed neatly into her large army surplus backpack, and she pulled that onto her shoulders as she snatched a wad of cash from one of her drawers. Remnant demons were running rampant all through Fortuna since the Savior incident, so she had been able to save a decent amount of money over the last little while to add to her savings. Hopefully, it would hold her over until she could get to Dante's. She wasn't sure exactly how far Capulet City was from Fortuna, but she knew it was quite the distance.

Emilia still hadn't contacted Dante, but she was going to do that as soon as she safely sneaked out of town. She didn't want to stir up a violent uprising complete with torches and pitchforks if she could help it. (Emilia knew she sounded immensely paranoid, but she believed it was better to be that way than possibly be attacked.)

She silently descended down the stairs and avoided as many creaky spots as she could on her way to the kitchen. Grabbing a notepad and pencil, she paused for a moment to think about what she wanted to write to her uncle and cousin. She hadn't told them about her little plan, and she wanted to write something loving and meaningful to them if she could. Dinner earlier that night was probably the last time she was going to see them in a very long time.

Emilia bit her lip to hold back the tears that were suddenly threatening to fall. She had never been thirty miles past the limits of Fortuna, and now she was going to completely uproot herself and travel hundred of miles toward a sanctuary she didn't even know was accessible. Not to mention she was basically abandoning the people that had unconditionally loved and cared for her all these years. It was all so much to take in.

She breathed in deeply and mercilessly suppressed her emotions. All she wrote on the notepad was _I'll call you._

–

Emilia grumpily shuffled into a gritty old bar on the outskirts of a sleepy little town. The sky had decided to open up and pour down onto her just as she had risen high enough into the sky to begin her journey. Along with the unexpectedly heavy weight of her bag, the poor visibility and gusty wind had made it difficult for her to get very far. Dawn was just touching the horizon, and she was more exhausted than she hoped to be.

The bartender eyed her a bit strangely as she plopped down at the bar. She sighed; it felt so immensely _awesome _to sit down. "Excuse me," she inquired wearily, "is it all right for me to use your phone?"

"Sure," the bartender grunted and motioned to the old phone attached to the wall.

"Thanks," Emilia replied as she fished around in her jacket for that dog-eared business card of Dante's. She reached for the receiver and punched in the number. With a rising sense of apprehension, she listened to the phone ring...

ring...ring...

Her call began with a violent thump and a whoosh. "Devil May Cry," greeted a sleepy, slightly irritated voice.

"...Dante?"

A long silence ensued. She could hear him scratching his head. "...Is this Emilia?"

"Yeah."

A sigh. "Just what the hell are you doing calling at five in the morning?"

"Well," Emilia began slowly, her tone growing increasingly sheepish, "I was wondering...would it be okay for me to stay with you awhile?"

Another long, uncomfortable silence. She could almost hear the cogs in his head sluggishly turning. "...Could this have waited 'til morning?"

"Um...not really."

He grumbled incoherently. "Ah...what the hell, kid. Whatever. I don't care. Come on."

Suddenly, a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders. A grin nearly split Emilia's face in half. "Thanks a lot!"

"Yeah, yeah," he retorted grouchily. "Bye."

The receiver went dead before Emilia had time to say anything else. But, heck, she didn't care if he hung up on her.

She had a place to stay.

–

Emilia arrived in Capulet City several days later. It was a good thing she got there when she did because her stash of money was growing quite scarce.

Capulet City was a sprawling metropolis, teeming with grim-looking people, buildings that hunched ominously over the streets, and vehicles that seemed to spew impossible amounts of black smoke. Her senses were violently assaulted with the smell of pollution and, well, _sin._ No wonder Dante chose to live here—business was good. The city reeked with demons and general unholiness.

After she found a convenience store with a map of the city, she pulled out Dante's business card and set straight to searching for his shop. It would be growing dark soon, and Emilia honestly did not like the thought of getting caught in the streets after sunset.

It took her a little while to discover the street she needed to turn on to (it was way out in an _awesomely _seedy part of downtown, note the sarcasm), but once she found the street, she figured it would be smooth sailing from there.

Turns out she was kinda wrong.

–

Dante was beginning to get kinda worried about his sorta-guest. Wasn't she supposed to be here by now? She had called earlier and said she was in the city, but that was hours ago. Yeah, he knew his place was pretty out of the way, but city navigating wasn't really all that hard. So, she should've been able to breeze through it. Right?

Oh, shit. That's right. She was a small-town girl. Two entirely different things.

Oh, God. He had to go find her. Before somebody creeped on her, and she beat that idiot into a pulp.

Just as he leaped up from his desk to pull on his signature trench coat, he heard a very violent knock on his door. He considered fleeing out the back because it sounded like Trish or Lady, but then again, they would've just kicked his doors open. So, he mentally steeled himself for a hysterical customer. "Come in!"

The doors flew open ominously, and the dusk painted a very angry silhouette of the dainty Emilia. "You!" she growled. "Why. Are you. All the way. Out _here_?"

He chuckled nervously. "Uh...because the rent's cheaper?"

Emilia, not trusting herself to speak at the moment, merely glowered at him as she trudged inside.

"Well," Dante began anxiously as he tugged at his shirt collar, "the guest bedroom is down that hallway. Second door on the left. I'll order some pizza."

She huffed and stalked in the direction Dante had indicated. Upon throwing open the door, Emilia went into a violent sneezing fit. The room positively reeked with stale air and copious amounts of dust.

Emilia could almost hear Dante cringe as she spluttered and cursed loudly. Eventually, to her great relief, her acute senses adjusted to the staleness of the room, and she cautiously placed her bag on the cleanest scrap of floor she could identify. She spent the next fifteen minutes surveying her room and the bathroom, making mental notes of how things were arranged and what needed copious amounts of bleach and elbow grease.

"Hey!" Dante's voice pricked her ears. "Pizza's here!"

A sudden hunger gnawed at Emilia's stomach. She hadn't eaten since her _very_ light breakfast that morning, and her mouth was suddenly watering at the thought of stringy melted cheese and greasy pepperoni. Faster than she had moved in nearly a month, she zipped into the front room and pulled up a chair to Dante's desk with a loud scrape.

Dante laughed. "Went without for a couple of days?" Emilia nodded, and he laughed again. "I've done a fair share of that myself."

He graciously handed her the first slice of pizza. "First and last time I'm doing that."

Emilia laughed and all but snatched the slice from him. "Thanks."

Dante grinned and grandly gestured around his modest shop. "Welcome to Devil May Cry! Now don't diss it."

Emilia smiled wryly at his last statement, but she decided it was best not to comment. She greedily tore into her pizza slice, and when she felt like she wasn't going to die of immediate hunger, she finally replied, "Glad to be here."

The pair raised their pizza slices in a congratulatory manner...and gorged.

* * *

_Extended Ending:_

"Um...yeah, by the way...you better be ready to work your ass off..."

* * *

C'mon...you know you wanna... :D


End file.
